It has become a general view that women have been greatly insulted in the Hindu scriptures. But this is not true. Hindu-marriage is a pious, religious act, a Hindu-woman is her husband's "ardhangini" (half-body), she has complete right over her husband. She is not an object of enjoyment, rather she is a pious goddess, who liberates her husband and can even send her husband to the supreme-most abode after his death through the power of her own piety. In truth, woman has been considered an object of enjoyment only in countries other than India. That is why only external beauty is valued there, and that is why the pious bond of marriage breaks with even little quarrels. This uncivilized state is called as "free love" there. There, love is limited only upto enjoyments, that is why it can shift from person to person. That is why in other countries, woman is neither the empress of the household, nor is she "ardhangini" of her husband. The views of Hindu scriptures regarding women are extremely high, respectable, and enhance the glory of women. The expressions of Manu (in manusmriti) regarding women are extremely generous, respectable, and are very influencing. The famous German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said about Manusmriti - "I know of no book in which so many delicate and kindly things are said of women as in the Code of Manu; these old grey-beards and saints have a way of being gallant to women that it would be impossible, perhaps, to surpass." Several verses and stories from puranas and vedas are given here to illustrate this point - Few examples are - "O Bride! You go to your inlaws home and (by your nice conduct) ruling over your mother in law, father in law, sister in law, stay there like an empress." (rigveda, 10.85) "Those relatives (father, brother, father in law, brother in law etc) who, under delusion, capture a woman's wealth, vehicles, animals, jewelery and clothes etc, and use these goods for themselves, earn their livelyhood through these goods, such sinful men suffer in terrible hells" (Manusmriti 3.52) "Those relatives who capture a woman's wealth while she is alive, such people should be given the same punishment as a thief" (manusmriti 8.29) "By renouncing a pious wife, the husband falls from his Dharma" (Vyaasa-smriti 2.47) "If a wife, who is deserving of honor, gets insulted and dies before her husband, then in 3 births she becomes the husband, and that husband becomes the wife" (katyayan smriti 3.13) "woman, old-man, and kid, - these three never get polluted" (Parashar-smriti 7.37) "From half the body man has been made and from the other half woman has been made, this the shrutis say. As long as man does not marry a woman, he remains half (incomplete)" (vyasasmriti 2.13) "Because women give birth to child, they are immensely lucky. They are the light of the house, they should be honored with clothes and jewellery. There is no difference between wife and goddess laxmi." (manu-smriti 9.26) "It is the duty of all the relatives of a woman - husband, brother, father, family members, mother in law, father in law, brother in law, etc that they worship and honor the woman with clothes and jewellery etc." (yagyavalkya-smriti 1.82) "Acharya (teacher) is superior to 10 learned brahmins, father is superior to 100 teachers, and mother is superior to 1000 fathers" (manusmriti 2.145) "A pious woman can liberate (uddhaar) 1000s of men through the power of her piety. The husband of a pati-vrata woman gets freed of all his sins. Through the power of a pati-vrata (pious) woman, her husband does not need to suffer the results of his deeds. He gets freed of all the bondages of his actions and enjoys bliss in the supreme abode along with God". (Skanda-puraan) "All the vidyaas (arts) and all the women are nothing but various forms of the divine goddess" (Markandeya-puraan) "All the graam-devis (demi-goddesses) and all the women of the earth are nothing but fragments of Mother Nature" (Devi-bhagvat) In Manusmriti (3.55) it is said - "If a father, brother, husband and brother-in-law,desires his supreme welfare, then they need to honor and respect women and decorate them with clothes and jewels etc. In a family where women are worshiped and respected, therein all the devtaas (demi-gods) reside happily. and in a family where women are not respected, all the actions, good deeds, pious acts etc become fruitless. A family where the sister, daughter, daughter in law and mother etc women are unhappy, that family is destroyed very soon, and a family where they are happy, that family always progresses. If women, for not being properly respected, curse a family, then that household gets destroyed from all aspects (wealth, comforts, honor, good deeds etc), as if a demoness is tormenting it. Therefore, men desirous of their own welfare always need to respect and honor women with clothes, jewellery, and good things like food etc, ie, make the woman the master of all these things, and they need to especially honor the women on auspicious occassions." There is a story in Padma-puraan (bhumi-khand, chapter 59), excerpts from that story are - Once a Vaishya man named krikal left his wife at home and went out for pilgrimage. He travelled to several holy places and while returning home, he saw a huge strong man holding all his (Krikal's) dead ancestors in his arms, and those ancestors were crying and shouting for help. When asked, the big strong man replied - I am dharma (righteousness), and I am punishing your ancestors for your bad deeds. Brahmin said - what bad deed did I do? infact i visited several holy places so that my ancestors could get peace. Dharma said - yes, but you left your pious pativrata wife at home and went on pilgrimage, so your pilgrimage is fruitless, all your good deeds have gone in vain. A man who is without a wife, his house is equal to a forest. All his charities and yagyas are fruitless. There is no better holy-pilgrimage than a pious wife. " (Note: This is a long speech by Dharma glorifying women, only excerpts have been posted here). These few examples prove that the kind of honor that Hindu scriptures give to women, no other religion of the world has given. Right from the time of birth, she is worshiped as Goddess and Mother, only in the Hindu-Scriptures. It is very unfair and ignorant to blame the Hindu religion and scriptures without understanding their essence or merely by seeing the ill-treatment of women by Hindu-men who are ignorant of the scriptures. (excerpts from an article by Hanuman Prasadji Poddar, First-Editor of Gitapress, Gorakhpur from book "NARI SIKSHA")
